


Friend Rates, Beta Tester Rare Drop

by FallowDeer



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, MMORPGs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27078784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallowDeer/pseuds/FallowDeer
Summary: Klein meets up with Kirito in Tolbana & fails to make proper introductions at least twice.
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito & Tsuboi Ryoutarou | Klein, Tsuboi Ryoutarou | Klein & Fuurinkazan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21
Collections: Fic In A Box





	Friend Rates, Beta Tester Rare Drop

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EternalEclipse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalEclipse/gifts).



Klein loved gaming.

He wouldn’t go so far as to call himself a _gamer_ , but he had more friends who knew him as _Klein_ than _Ryoutarou_. He played for fun. Maybe because of that, he’d never really understood soloing an MMORPG. If you didn’t know anyone going in it was easy to make new connections, and with the right group even failing at the same dungeon for hours could be a blast. The multiplayer aspect was, like, the entire appeal.

He knew there were people out there who weren’t into that—just like there were people out there who didn’t spend their free time writing gear optimization spreadsheets as a relaxing hobby. Yeah, as unbelievable as it was, they existed. Klein was even friends with some of them.

Solo players, competitive players—they were different, sometimes downright _mean_. But Kirito hadn’t seemed like the kind of person to get his kicks lording his skills over the less-experienced. Helping some random newbie kill boars? Not exactly a power-trip.

Maybe he was lonely.

In any case, he’d agreed to meet up with the guys.

“Kirito!” Klein yelled, waving hugely to get his attention. In the distance Kirito raised an unsure hand, just as nervous as Klein remembered.

Something impacted the back of his head with a slap.

The sudden system-provided knowledge that he’d been hit meant he reacted just a bit late, but he made an excellent show of reeling from the blow—more at the betrayal than the threat to his untouched health pool.

“Get it together, fearless leader. You’ll scare the poor kid off,” Dale scolded, completely failing to appreciate Klein’s acting. His incriminating hand dropped back to his side.

The rest of them were even less supportive:

“At last, Klein’s golden goose!”

“He’s smaller than I expected. You should be feeding him more.”

“What a cutie. You said he had a sister?”

“Cool looking sword.”

Klein waved them back, “Hey, now. Don’t crowd him! He’ll never forgive me if I let the pack of you beasts descend all at once. I know what scavengers you are.”

Dynamm, Issin, and Harry Two booed. Ah, friendship.

He should have insisted on only introducing Kunimitzz.

It’d been rough arguing the meet-and-greet down from the whole group to the core-six, but he’d been worried too many people would scare Kirito off. And about moving so many of them at once—even with Kirito’s careful directions, delivered with some other general game-play advice via the artificially slow system mail.

«Tolbana» his UI informed him as he passed the town’s invisible threshold. On the edge of his vision «Outer Field» changed to «Inner Area» with a cheerful blip and everything acquired a friendly golden tint. _You’re safe here!_ it practically sang. Some system designer had probably patted themselves on the back for the idea.

In the heat of the moment Klein had a hard time remembering «Sword Art Online» wasn’t a _game_ , for all that crazy murderer Dev Kayaba had done his level best to strip the fun right out of it, day one. The world was so familiar, an amalgamation of every MMO rendered in impossibly realistic detail, brought to life in VR.

And he’d waited so long to play it.

This whole thing was going to give him a complex.

Speaking of complexes, Kirito was slinking away down a conveniently placed alley. What a strategic little guy. Klein should have known even the core group was going to be too much for him.

“I see your future. He’s going to mug you,” Issin half-joked. Kunimitzz took an abortive step toward Klein, genuinely worried.

“Kirito isn’t like that, guys,” Klein protested. “He’s just—shy. Give me a couple minutes and if we’re not out by then, go check out the town. It’s supposed to be a quest hub, see if you can find anything useful.”

The alley wasn’t very threatening. The sandy stone of the buildings gave everything a warm glow and the cobblestone street was clean—spotless, really. Despite that, Kirito was lurking in the darkest shadows by the only trash bins he’d seen in the entire game. He was about as tall as them, too. 

Klien did his best to look friendly, “Hey, Kirito!”

Kirito peered back at him. His face was a mask, emotionless, “Hello, Klein.”

“I brought the guys I game with. They’re really excited to meet you! I thought we could do some quests together or something!”

“Oh,” Kirito said, smooth expression breaking down rapidly. It made Klein feel like a bit of a bully, cornering a skinny little underclassman—one that could totally kick his ass.

“Listen, you don’t have to. They’ll understand! I promise, they’re super nice.”

Kirito nodded, shook his head, and nodded again. He squared his shoulders, looked Klein in the eye, opened his mouth, and closed it into a wavering line. It was so painful to witness Klein checked his HP, sure he’d somehow taken damage.

“Actually, what if you show me around town? I’m level four already, there’s got to be new stuff I’ve unlocked! Man, the quest system is super unintuitive, isn’t it? How’d you get so far in the beta test? You done anything fun lately?”

Kirito didn’t respond to Klein’s totally smooth change of plans, but he stopped looking like he was facing down his own execution—expression lightening just a hair—and he followed Klein out the opposite end of the alley with no prompting. It was a win. 

They walked together to the deserted main road. Well, deserted of other players—NPCs moved in looping animations all around them, giving the street the illusion of fullness. It was weird.

“Who, uh, who did you bring? To—meet me?”

“Well, not just to meet you. You were right, the fields outside the Town of Beginnings were packed! It’s just Dale, Dynamm, Issin, Kunimittz, and Harry Two.”

Kirito put a hand to his chin, mulling it over. He was still following Klein, and Klein had no idea where they were going, so he kind of—gracefully—stumbled a couple of steps to get Kirito in the lead. Kirito observed this with bemusement, like he couldn’t figure out why Klein had ended up behind him.

His expression cleared, and he veered down a side-street, “I thought there were more of you?”

“Oh, yeah. We’re the progression half of the group! The rest of us went right into crafting and mercantile to get a leg up on the competition.”

“Smart,” Kirito said.

“Thank you! I’ve lead a guild before, you know?” Not that they were a guild. Klein hadn’t been able to figure out how to form one, yet.

“You’re planning to clear the floors?” Kirito asked, thoughts ticking away behind his shiny black eyes. It made Klein want to pat him on the head and shake him down for tips at the same time, a confusing dichotomy. He kept his hands to himself.

“Yeah, well, somebody’s got to do it. I figure, there’s no point in waiting around for a miracle. And we’ve already got synergy, so,” he trailed off, hand awkwardly raised halfway through an expansive gesture. Kirito was clearly solitary, but it did seem like it was out of shyness rather than a general dislike of people. Would inviting him to the eventual guild scare him off? Would not inviting him hurt his feelings? Did he even want to quest with Klein, never mind the rest of the guys? “What’re you planning to do?”

“More than three hundred people have been killed,” Kirito said. “It’s only been a week.”

“Yeah,” Klein responded slowly. “There’s nothing we could have done about that. Some people can’t take it. That’s just how it is.” Klein had been trying not to let any of his group focus on the tragedy, but it’d been unavoidable in the first few days. Issin in particular had taken it rough. Dynamm had been sticking to him like glue, goofing off extra hard to cheer him up.

He hoped Kirito hadn’t been dwelling on it. It wasn’t anybody’s fault but Kayaba’s.

Kirito flicked his fingers, opening his inventory. “I got this note,” he said as it materialized in his hand. He held it up for Klein to read.

«Urgent. Second room Horunka Ruins.  
Tomorrow. Noon. Come alone.»

“Some of the beta testers were talking about writing a guide for general release,” he explained. "They've been using instances to meet."

“You’re friends with other beta testers?” Klein asked, cheered by the notion. That'd be a weight off his shoulders. It felt irresponsible, letting a kid run off all on his lonesome—even if that kid was totally cool and could probably knock Klein out in, like, two hits. Three, if he was flattering himself.

Kirito shrugged, “I don’t know who wrote this. It was slipped under my door this morning.”

How suspicious. Klein raised a skeptical eyebrow, a move he'd recently mastered, “Is there some way for you to verify that the meeting’s legit?”

"No," Kirito said. Then he seemed to think it over, “No. But it’s only been a week. Only beta testers should be in Tolbana.”

“I’m in Tolbana,” Klein pointed out.

“You think it’s a set-up,” Kirito observed. He was at ease with it. Threats to his life were so much easier than being introduced to a bunch of Klein’s nerdy friends, apparently. 

Klein wasn’t sure how to word it in a way that didn’t make Kirito sound like a valuable collector’s item. He decided to be blunt, “You’ve got a rare resource in that head of yours, you know? The criminal-code doesn’t extend past the town’s borders. You’ve got to be careful.”

“I know it might be dangerous. I should go, anyway. If it's a new player, they could get themselves into trouble in there.”

“Seems risky. I know, we’ll back you up!” Klein declared, but Kirito was shaking his head. “What, ‘no’? Come on, Kirito. It’s the smart move. And think of how bored you'll be if no one shows up. _And_ , I wouldn’t let a total stranger wander into what’s probably some kind of ambush, much-less—” _a friend_.

“I don’t want to get _you_ into trouble either,” Kirito said over him.

“If there’s trouble, we can handle it!”

“You’re under the level range for the Horunka Ruins,” Kirito told him with finality, and stomped away.

Klein let it drop, following Kirito around Tolbana without any further nagging on any front. He made note of the useful locations to revisit with the group, picked up «Tracking» for himself on Kirito’s recommendation, speculated at length what kind of person would waste a slot on «Bardic Knowledge». He talked his way through the inn’s limited menu. Kirito had been wound tight at the beginning, but as time went on and Klein didn’t bring it up again he gradually relaxed. Klein even got a couple laughs—small ones hidden behind his hand, like Kirito felt guilty about them.

Inside, Klein schemed. He wasn’t going to let Kirito run off to some ambush, alone. Obviously. Plus, they could hang out afterward if it turned out it was nothing.

“It was good to see you again,” Kirito said after dinner.

“You heading out early?” Klein asked with a grin.

Kirito shook his head, resigned but not angry, “Don’t follow me, Klein. I can handle myself.”

“Sure, sure. But tell me you’ll be careful! I’m a natural worrier, just look at my face.”

Kirito huffed another little laugh at that, and turned to go. Klein watched him walk off into the artificial night. Then, he went to track down his friends. They had some planning to do.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

“This place is super creepy,” Issin observed. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Harry Two nodded in agreement. Dynamm mimed a faint.

“Keep your bad feelings in your gut,” Klein told them without heat. The entrance to the dungeon _was_ exceptionally creepy, vines crawling over the broken walls and unnatural darkness shadowing the interior of the ruins. It would have been incredibly cool in the original conditions Klein had signed up for.

It was fine. It was going to be fine. Klein was great at compartmentalizing.

Klein stepped forward first, the ripples of some kind of separate instance swallowing him up. «Horunka Ruins» flickered and died in front of his eyes. He was alone for the first time since the game had started, the ambient sound of the wind whistling through the empty hallway setting his hair on end.

Then Dale appeared, followed rapidly by the rest of the group.

Dale moved instantly forward, examining the deserted first room, “This could be a problem, if it generates for each separate group.”

“It wouldn’t work as a meeting place for strangers if that were the case,” Klein countered. But if it were locked in some other way they might screw Kirito’s meeting up just by being inside. “Let’s look around for a bit, not too far. Then we can duck back out and wait for Kirito.”

“You really think the little guy’s gonna show?” Harry Two asked. Under his breath he added, “—I wouldn’t.”

“You’re such a downer, Harry Two,” Dynamm said, throwing an arm around his neck and dragging him forward.

“Would you please just call me ‘Harry’ when Harry One isn’t here? How many times do I have to ask?”

“Be quiet,” Kunimitzz said, suddenly. “There’s footprints.”

“There’s footprints, so you need us to be quiet to _see_ them?” Dynamm laughed.

“There’s footprints so there’s probably someone here, you ass,” Harry Two griped, shaking him off and stalking back to where Issin was lingering at the dungeon’s entrance.

Klein activated his own «Tracking» and let the room wash out in blue. Like Kunimitzz had said, on the floor two sets of footprints glowed, pointing in opposite directions. One set disappeared down the hall and another lead back out of the instance. They'd clearly been left by the same person—Klein put his foot down in one: it was at least two shoe-sizes bigger.

Definitely not Kirito.

“We’ll wait here, make sure no one comes in from behind,” Kunimitzz said.

Klein gave him a thumbs-up and stepped forward into the dungeon. Dale and Dynamm came with him. Klein wasn't, like, childhood friends with any of the guys—but he didn’t need to be to know they had his back. 

The footprints appeared irregularly around the center of the room. Klein fumbled with his menu a moment, trying to cancel the «Tracking» to get an unfiltered look at what they were working with, and Dynamm slipped past him. 

Something clicked.

Now, Aincrad wasn’t your typical MMO, but Klein had a guess what that meant. Dale and Dynamm ended up pressing him into the wall as the floor shook. Tanks, taking the meatshield thing a little too literally.

Dust rained from the ceiling, but that was all.

«Tracking» off, Klein could see the floor was littered with broken columns. The walls were cracked, the mural on them too faded to make out.

“Actually, I’m with Issin,” Dynamm whispered. “This is creepy.”

From where they’d come, a cacophony of shouts arose. Klein had a horrible vision of some over-leveled monster being released at their rear to drive them into the dungeon, wiping out Issin, Kunimitzz, and Harry Two with one sweeping blow. “Back to the group!”

They were a few steps behind him—he was going to have to work with everyone on reaction time.

He wasn’t totally wrong about it being an over-leveled monster.

“Woah, woah, woah, hold on Kirito! They’re with me!” Klein yelled. 

Kirito froze, his sword at Issin’s neck. Issin gave Klein a wild look from where he’d been pinned to the floor. Issin hadn’t ever been a fan of melee combat. Klein hoped this didn’t totally destroy his confidence.

“Klein? I told you not to follow me.”

“Well now, technically, we didn’t follow you. We preceded you!”

Kirito scowled up at him.

“You’re ten minutes early! We would have been out of here before noon. I just wanted to make sure nothing fishy was going on, you never even would have seen us.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” Kirito said. At his words the room darkened ominously. A loud rumbling echoed from the depths of the hall.

“Oh shit,” Issin croaked. “Kirito’s the trap-laying ambusher. As the prophecy foretold.” None of his theatrical bones were broken, what a relief.

“Absolutely not,” Klein told him. “That’s just ambiance.”

As if in agreement, the room shook again. Through the dust, Klein could see a dark cloaked figure had appeared next to Issin and Kirito—from the instance doorway.

Before it’d even finished loading into the room the figure spoke, “So foolish of you to come alone!”

The dust cleared quickly and revealed the speaker: a tall man of about Klein’s age, with very respectable muscles. He threw his cloak off and took one forceful step into the room so he stood toe-to-toe with Klein, smirking down at him. His dusty brown tunic blended in pretty well with the dusty room. 

Klein was no beta tester, but even he could tell the guy was in noob armor.

“Dude,” Dynamm said.

Klein pushed against the guy’s chest with a finger, backing him off a step. 

The guy looked around at them, “There are more of you than I expected.”

“Are you the one who left me that note?” Kirito asked. At some point he’d gotten off Issin, probably while the guy was menacing Klein.

“Hah!” the guy tossed his head dramatically, fully rallied from his momentary surprise. “My group will rise above the weak bottom-feeders eating away at the roots of the strong! With proper resource distribution _we_ will beat this terrible game!” He gestured expansively behind him, the dungeon’s threshold rippling where he brushed against it with the motion.

Klein readied his strike. It wasn’t like he _wanted_ to attack another player, but somehow he didn’t think people who were all about stomping on the weak were going to be interested in a civilized discussion. Around him the group had recovered from their Kirito-encounter: Issin had backed up, ready to offer his support. Harry Two and Dale were in defensive positions and Dynamm had moved to block for Issin. Klein couldn’t see Kunimitzz, hopefully he’d fallen back into the hall, ready to come charging in.

Kirito sheathed his sword.

“Uh,” the guy said, pose wilting when nothing else happened.

“This instance maxes out at eight players,” Kirito told him.

The loud rumbling from the hall had grown more intense. With a wretched screech, a old portcullis came crashing down from above the dungeon’s threshold. The guy would have lost his hand if Kirito hadn’t darted forward in the instant between the grate’s appearance and its sudden decent to yank him further into the room.

“One half hour after activating the first trap, the group is locked in,” Kirito explained.

Klein had actually deduced most of that without his help. Was this it? Was this fate, setting up an opportunity for them to hang as one big team?

Issin fidgeted with his sword, “Why a half hour? That seems arbitrary.” 

Kirito shrugged, “It’s to allow time for everyone to arrive? I’m not really sure.”

“That’s so stupid. This game sucks,” Dynamm complained.

Kirito touched the grate and when he pulled back his fingers were discolored with rust. He rubbed them together and it flaked away, drifting to the floor. An unsettling detail for what would have just been an early bonus dungeon.

“This isn’t a game,” Klein said to Kirito’s unspoken reminder, enthusiasm quelled. “But! It’s enough _like_ a game that we can just teleport the hell out of here.”

“Teleport?” the guy asked from the floor, still sprawled where Kirito had dropped him.

Klein nudged him with his foot, “You can buy them at the Teleport Gate Plaza. Did you somehow not notice that the central plaza is named Teleport Gate Plaza and it has a big glowing teleport gate in it?”

“I just thought it was like an aesthetic thing,” the guy said, finally getting up.

“Who are you again?” Klein asked.

“My name’s Harry,” the guy said. “But Harry was taken, so my screen name’s Harry-with-a-four-for-the-A.”

“Well, I’m not calling you that,” Klein decided. “What the hell, man? I thought you were going to crush the weak with your superior resources or whatever. Teleport crystals are, like, the most basic money-sink. It is impossible to miss them.”

“You don’t have to be a dick about it.”

“Me?” Klein sputtered, “What—you—you were trying to extort my friend here! Or worse!”

That rallied the group.

“Look at this baby face,” Issin said, grabbing Kirito and pointing. “How could you?”

“It’s like kicking a puppy,” Dynamm said.

“You’re not worthy of the name Harry,” Harry Two said.

“It is you who are the dick,” Dale tacked on, for clarity.

“Uh,” Kirito said.

“I'm Kunimitzz,” Kunimitzz said to Kirito.

“Whatever,” H4rry scoffed. “We just wanted a run-through! Is that a crime?”

“So you were going to force me to help you?” Kirito asked slowly.

H4rry crossed his arms, “Sure. And you should be thanking me for showing up. Who knows what would happen if you were on your own?”

“He’d be kidnapped by your suspicious group,” Dynamm yelled, pointing a finger.

“As opposed to _your_ suspicious group,” H4rry yelled back.

Klein looked them over. They did look a little suspicious, especially crowded behind the much smaller and better equipped Kirito.

“I’ll get Harry out," Kirito said. "Unless any of you have extra teleport crystals?”

“Kirito, we’re not letting you run a dungeon alone with some rando! Obviously we’re coming!”

Kirito’s expression shifted minutely—Klein could tell he was about to be stubborn again. He gestured at Dale for backup.

Dale, as usual, came through with the facts, “If you’re running it anyway, we might as well come. We aren’t exactly swimming in cash, and those teleport crystals are pretty spendy.”

“What a great point,” Klein said, already setting off into the dungeon. “I guess we have to run it!”

Kirito sighed loudly enough Klein could hear him from the hall. He caught up to Klein ahead of the rest of them, and he looked about as miserable as he had when Klein had met him in that alley.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Kirito said shortly. Then: "No, that's not true. I'm sorry you got involved in this. But, thanks. For accidentally maxing out the instance."

"Hey, no problem. Taking up space is what we do best!" Klein gave in to the impulse to ruffle his hair. Kirito recoiled so violently he smacked his head on the wall.

Whoops.

Well, at least Kirito would have a chance to hang with the guys! One dungeon would definitely be enough to win him over.

(It wasn't.)


End file.
